Those who have visited Tainan may remember losing their bearings in its winding back streets, which promise pleasant surprises at every turn. Why are there so many little streets and alleys in this historic town in Southern Taiwan? Su Feng-nan, an author who has explored the historical nuances of Tainan’s highways and byways, tells us, “As a city, Tainan didn’t take shape according to a preconceived plan. Rather, it developed organically.
Looking back over the past 100 years, the efforts of many scientists, including Tu Tsung-ming, Lee Chen-yuan, and Chang Chuan-chiung, put Taiwan on the global map in the field of snake venom research. Today, the strong foundations that they laid down are being built upon by their successors, who are poised to do their part to help the 2 million people worldwide who suffer snakebites each year.
For this report, we spent two days visiting the architecture featured as part of the “Tainan 400” celebrations, marking 400 years since the city’s founding. On the first day we viewed buildings from the period of the Kingdom of Tungning (1661–1683), which ruled part of Taiwan in the name of the Ming Dynasty, and from the era of Qing-Dynasty rule (1683–1895).
“Boxing and my family are my whole life.” So says Lai Chu-en, a boxer in the light welterweight (63.5 kilogram) division at the Paris Olympics.
“The older generation often says that in boxing you have to sting like a bee, stand as strong as an elephant, float like a butterfly, be as fast as a leopard, and move your waist like a serpent. Lai Chu-en can do all these things,” observes Sean Lo, a boxing coach at the National Sports Training Center.
Taiwan has streets in many cities named “Chenggong,” as well as schools at all levels with Chenggong in their names. Tainan, in particular, has multiple elementary schools, a middle school, and even a university (spelled Cheng Kung) with this word in their monikers.
In modern Chinese, chenggong is a word that means “success.”
In February of 2024, badminton player Chou Tien-chen announced that in early 2023 he had been diagnosed with early-stage colon cancer. After undergoing surgery, he began competing in numerous events and not only qualified for the Olympics, but came to understand, in the course of his training, how improved nerve conduction could bring back his “feel” for the game. Chou, called “Little Tien” by badminton fans, says: “I’m an athlete who performs best when the chips are down.
In 1624 the Dutch established a trading post in the New World, in what is now New York. In the same year, the Dutch East India Company came ashore in Taiwan in a place then called Dayuan (today part of the Anping District of Tainan City). Their 38-year rule changed the course of Taiwan’s history.
The Summer Games of the 33rd Olympiad will be held in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11, 2024. Taiwan has been allocated 60 spots for athletes competing in 16 sports as they strive for glory in the world’s most exalted sporting event. They will demonstrate the strength and beauty of competition and test their individual limits, while also raising Taiwan’s international profile.
Across the millennia, Taiwan has successively presented different aspects of itself to the world.
If microchips have become representative of our islands only in recent years, the 20th century already witnessed the global reach of products made in Taiwan. Scholars investigating the spread of Austronesian cultures across the Pacific Ocean have surmised that these peoples originated in Taiwan.
Tainan has become a watchword in Taiwanese mixology. Over the last few years, the city has seen the rapid rise of nearly 100 bars, many of which are regularly named among Asia’s 50 best bars and employ mixologists that frequently participate in bartending competitions large and small. How did this buzzy bar scene come to be?
